Blood and Wine
by Charissa Eden
Summary: Seeing your father every two years is hard. At least it was for me. I always wanted to know more about him. And if he really cared. I never thought that'd mean entering a world of monsters, Gods, and wine. My name is Chelsea, Daughter of Dionysus.
1. Thanks for stopping in after two years

**Author's Note:** This is my first published on fanfiction in years. Also, it's my first Percy Jackson fanfiction. And my first anything really written seriously in first person and from the view point of a child. Revews are loved. So is criticism.

**Disclaimer:** I only lay claim to my OC's. Everything else belongs to the Rick man or whoever owns the rights.

By the time I was eleven, I think I had only seen my dad a handful of times. The number was probably like five or six times. And when he did sporadically show up the guy never really said much to me. It was like he was just making sure that my mom hadn't screwed me up too bad. The only thing that I could remember about him and the times he came was that I was just happy my mom took me and not him because he did not seem like the type to be a decent dad. Even my stepdad, the world's biggest prude had to be better than what he would have been or that's what I always told myself whenever I thought about him.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. My name is Chelsea Nicole Nichols. Yeah, yeah. CNN. I've heard all the jokes. My last name wasn't always Nichols. It was James until my mom married my stepfather when I was six. One of the worst days of my young life really. Not that I knew it at the time.

I digress, though. If my thoughts seemed scrambled blame my ADHD. I can hardly focus on anything really. No teacher or amount of medication could change that. The pills my mom gave me seemed to be as useful as placebos, those sugar pills that are used for drug experiments and what not.

Okay, let's really start from the beginning. My name is Chelsea Nicole Nichols. I live with my mom, my stepfather, and our dog in some middle class neighborhood in northern Virginia. Alexandria to be exact. My mother, Nicole, works as some aide to some Congressmen or something like. And my stepfather does some Defense contracting. I don't know what they do. It's boring stuff. They're really quite boring people (but I have feeling that my mother wasn't always so boring).

I'm not much to look at even for an eleven year old. I just dreaded the day puberty finally hit and my fears were confirmed. This baby fat wasn't going away. My already unmanageable dark curls would just be greasy. And there was no way that I'd get my mom's nice hips or her chest. No. I already looked too much like my biological father for that to happen. I doubted I'd get any taller. I would probably stay squat at five foot three the rest of my life. The only thing that puberty wouldn't do to me was make me stink.

I already had a naturally strange scent. People always told me I smelled fruity. Usually like grapes. Sometimes strawberries though. I never understood that either. Didn't question it though. But at eleven years old, I had a lot of other things to worry about other than my pleasantly strange fruity scent. You know like starting sixth grade in the fall (even though fifth grade hadn't ended just yet) and boys and that sort of stuff.

"But Mom…Judy's mother lets her shave her legs. Why can't I? I don't want to go to her pool party looking like a wooly mammoth. I'm already fat don't make me stay hairy too!" I whined as I stood beside her desk as she scribbled notes in a perfect handwriting that I could never mimic.

"Chelsea Nicole…you're eleven. You don't need to shave your legs. Savor it while you can. Shaving sucks! And you're not fat. It's just baby fat." My mother said, sticking her tongue out at the air as she scribbled a few things down from her laptop to her notebook. There were times when my mom could act funny or normal, but that was only when my stepfather Greg wasn't around. Jesus was he a prude. My mom was a pretty woman. Something I'd never be that was for sure. I'd already seen my future. She had strawberry blond hair that was always up in a tight neat bun. My mom also had bright green eyes. Mine were the color of dirt. She had flawless skin. Mine was permanently blotchy like my biological father's skin, it seemed. But enough about that…

Before I could respond again the doorbell rang to our two story house and our black German shepherd Mellow, started barking at the sound of it. My mother told me to go get the door and I did. Our house was decorated in such a way that one really wouldn't expect a dog or a child to live there. Greg liked to impress his work friends. He was also a Jesus freak and aside from forcing my mom and me to go to his Catholic church every Sunday (and me into Catholic school) he kept plenty of memorabilia around the house. That was probably the one thing me and my mom really agreed on. Even though she never said it, I knew she didn't believe in the Bible or Jesus or Christianity. And neither did I. At eleven I knew that this wasn't right…at least for me anyway. Didn't ever really make sense to me. Not to mention I nearly always fell asleep during Mass.

I passed through the living room with the black couch, two seater, and recliner and other furniture that could have been bought at Ikea or someplace like that. The only room that was in disarray in the entire house was my own room. It didn't have the same sophisticated color scheme. The walls were painted an obnoxiously bright purple and everything was pretty much purple. I loved the color purple. Certain shades more than others…but I loved all purples. However all thoughts were blown from my mind when I opened our front door.

"D.?" I asked as I stared at the man on the front porch. The best way I could think of to describe him was that he was one of those stereotypical frats boys at some party school college but add another twenty years and no job. His eyes were always bloodshot. I don't know why. He never seemed drunk. And he also wore clothing that screamed the fact that he hadn't done laundry in a while. A leopard shirt and walking shorts. And sandals and purple socks.

My mom told me that she met my dad at a frat party when she was in her last year of undergraduate studies. I had no trouble believing that at all. Though I wasn't sure my biological father ever graduated college. I only ever heard he ran a summer camp up in New York. What did he do the rest of the time? I didn't know. But I did know that when he came around my mom got agitated, really angry. She wasn't as bad as Greg was, though. Greg hated seeing my biological father, even though he came around only once every couple of years. And that was why I called him D. That's what my mom called him. Calling him dad to his face just felt…weird. Although I had no idea what the "D" stood for…

He didn't say anything; he just looked me over and nodded his greeting. He was weird. Never said my name really. Just gave me really weird looks.

"You've grown." He finally said. I just nodded. The last time he saw me was right before I turned nine. I had probably grown maybe four inches.

"Yeah." I said finally said awkwardly. "Mom!" I yelled turning towards the stairs. "D is here!" I heard my mother cursing up the stairs before she came down the stairs. She looked flustered when she saw my dad. I thought for a moment that flash of life crossed her eyes. That girl she was when she met my dad was still in there. However, her features went cold once again.

"D." she said curtly as she went to the couch to sit down. Maybe that was why he didn't come around more. My mom didn't exactly act like she wanted him around. Maybe that was why he wouldn't ever look at me. Because of my mom. Maybe that was it…I watched them from the doorway.

"Can you get me a-" my dad said only looking at me briefly.

"Diet Coke?" I finished. I didn't know much about my dad, but what little I learned about him from his periodic visits, I remembered. I went to the kitchen. My stepfather had diabetes and could only drink diet soda, so we always had the stuff because that, and Diet Dr. Pepper, was all he drank soda wise anyway. I could hear them talking, but Mr. Davis next door just started his Harley and I couldn't make out the sounds. When I brought the soda out, he was alone in the room and glaring at the crucifix that was hanging above the mantle.

And not just glaring. But staring at it with a look that said he was trying to get it to blow up with his mind. I'd never seen someone stare at a cross like that before. It was weird. "Um..D…I got your soda." I said awkwardly holding out the glass. He took it and then sipped on it for a moment before he turned to look at me, grumbling about religion. He went back to the couch and sat down. But now he was flipping through a thick book. Where did that come from?

"I brought this for you." He said setting it on the coffee table. "Read it."

This was a really thick book. I could barely read Nancy Drew let alone this thing. The problem wasn't that I hated reading. I was dyslexic. It made reading hard and bothersome. Then I saw the title "Olympians, Heroes, and Monsters: A Complete Guide". That was strange.

"My dad would kill me if he caught me with that. Mom too. They can't stand stuff that's like…like that." Heathen stuff, Greg would say. I don't know why I made it a point to call Greg dad in front of D. Maybe I wanted it to bother him. Hurt him. Even though realistically, I knew that if he cared about me he'd come around and he wouldn't care what I called Greg.

"Then don't let them see it." He told me as he pushed it towards me and I picked it up. It was strange. He'd never given me anything before. Except…well, mom said that stuffed leopard I had was from him. I wasn't even sure if my mom got child support from him. Without another word though I clutched it to my chest and hurried to my room. I made sure to hide it under the loose floorboards under my bed. My stepdad was a snoop, but still hadn't found my hiding spot. When I went back down stairs, I hurried them arguing. Words like 'June' and 'camp' kept coming out of their mouths and as I got to the bottom of the stairs D was storming out of the house. I followed him to the lawn. "Can't you stay longer?"

"No." he answered without explanation.

"When am I going to see you again?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Can't you come around more?" I asked. He looked away from me. "I wish you would." I blurted that out before I had time to think about it.

He only started to walk down the sidewalk like he didn't want to hear that. I watched him for a few moments, probably the last glimpse I'd get of him for two years. Honestly, I don't know why he showed up like he did or why I wanted him to come around more. "Bye, Dad." I muttered as I watched him disappear around the corner. After a few more moments, I walked back into the house to see my mother staring at me.

"What did D say to you?"

"Nothing. I mean. Beyond 'get me a diet coke', 'no', and 'you've grown'. Not necessarily in that order." I told her with a shrug. "Same thing as always." I was not going to tell her about the book. Even though I felt she didn't believe as much as Greg, she acted like she did and would probably burn the book. I wasn't going to let that happen. No chance in hell.

"Sweetie, you shouldn't get your hopes up when comes around. I mean, I know you wish you knew your real father. And I hate that he comes around like this-"

"Maybe he'd come around more if you didn't always yell at him! Or didn't marry that loser Greg!" I shot at her. Whenever my father came around we argued. I got angry. I didn't think I was actually mad at her. No. I loved my mom. I was angry at D and she was just there for me to take it out on her. I knew I hurt her when I said those things, but I didn't care-not at the moment anyway. I stormed up the stairs and went up to my bedroom, slamming the door. I plopped on my bed and grabbed the leopard and looked at it. Even after ten years the thing was still brand new looking. I was lucky that Greg didn't come in and yell at me. I guess my mom talked him out of it, even though I deserved a walloping from him. I didn't go down for dinner. I spent most of the night sitting on my bed reading that book that my dad gave me.

It was like trying to read the Lord of the Rings, even though I knew that for anyone else it'd probably be an easy read. Luckily there were a lot of pictures. On the chapter on the Olympians there was a full page portrait of each of the Gods. I decided that the coolest was definitely Hephaestus. I mean, that dude could make anything! Dionysus was pretty cool too. At least the stuff that happened in his life. I couldn't really think wine was that often and I never had the attention to pay attention plays. Hermes and Apollo seemed cool too. Well, they all seemed cool. Zeus, though…just kind of scary. More so than Hades, even. It wasn't until I started on the chapter of monsters that I realized it was three in the morning. I slid the book back under the floorboards reluctantly and got into bed.


	2. I'm not exactly sure how that happened

** Author's Note:** The second chapter a little quicker than I had intended, but here it is by not so popular demand.

Those four hours of sleep didn't really help. Even before school started officially, I was exhausted. I sat in the playground on a far bench, yawning extensively. My mind was still whirling from a strange dream I had. There were goat people and pirates. I was use to my weird dreams though. It was weird when I didn't have them. I ran my fingers through my hair which was slightly dirty as I didn't have time to shower this morning. Soon, I found myself jolted from my thoughts as my friend Forester sat down on the bench next to me.

He was an odd fellow and certain had the youthful attitude of a fifth grader, soon to be sixth grader, but he looked old like he should be in seventh grade or eighth grade or something. "Dang, Chelsea…you look like crap."

"Jeez, thanks, Forester." She said wiping my eyes again. Just a few more days of school to go, I thought as I looked around. Then no more getting up early in the morning and I could sleep in. I wasn't sure where to broach the subject of my dad, because I hadn't known Forester all that well. I had only met him this year and I hadn't seen my dad since before that. But I had told Forester about not living with my dad. "I saw my dad yesterday. He showed up. Like he usually does. Without warning and doesn't say a freaking thing to me except give me this stupid book on Greek mythology. I heard him yelling at my mom about some stupid summer camp or something."

Forester looked to be at a loss for words. If there was anything strange about his reaction at the time, I didn't notice it. "Wow…I mean...at least he comes around once in a while, y'know?"

I held my head in my hands as my elbows were propped up on my knees. "I guess. I think though…like he said he wanted me to go to this summer camp. And he runs a summer camp. Maybe he's been trying for years to get my mom to let me come so I could see him and he could see me." The thought had been in the back of my mind for a while, but I never voiced it. It was then that I noticed something strange. Forester's expression faltered, like he knew something that I didn't, but wouldn't tell me because he didn't want to hurt me.

"Chelsea…I think…listen. Just try to forget about that okay? I mean….You got me? What else do you need?" he said elbowing me gently. "Let's get to class. Sister Marie is not going to be happy if we're late." I nodded in agreement and we walked to our classroom. The Sister that taught us could have been called a bat out of Hell. She especially hated me and Forester because neither of us really gave off the same Jesus-vibe that everyone else did, plus both of us were failing our bible studies. And I was pretty much failing everything else, actually...

I don't know if it was the ADHD or the lack of sleep, but I was not able to focus and I was just a bit surprised when Forester and I were walking to the lunchroom.

"Listen, Chelsea…I know you're bummed about your dad, but I mean-"

I had no idea why he was so interested in talking to me about my dad now. He seemed worried about me and how I was dealing with my dad, rather than how my dad was actually acting. "I'd really rather just try and forget his visit, okay?" That wasn't true. I wanted to stay in my fantasy world that my dad had actually wanted to see me and wasn't just…well, I still didn't know why he came by like he did. I reached for my bottle of water and uncapped it. As soon as it hit my lips I was spitting it out in a spray of water that reached across the table and splattered Forester in the face.

"Ew! What the heck-" The stench of alcohol reached my nose as I looked down at the now purple liquid in the water bottle. "Is this-"

"WINE?" I heard a voice screech behind me. Sister Anne. Great, I thought, just great. "Ms. Nichols! I knew you were a troublemaker, but I didn't think I'd ever see the day where a fifth grader brought alcohol to school!" And then it happened. She snatched me up by the ear and I was pulled away from Forester who was staring at me with a look full of pity.

"But I didn't bring it. It just appeared in my water bottle!" I tried to explain, but even I knew that didn't make any sense. None at all. I soon found myself sitting outside the Headmistress's office waiting for my mother to show up. But I wasn't so lucky. It wasn't my mother that showed up. It was Greg. Today was just getting better, I thought as he went to the office without saying a word to me. And when he did come out he still didn't say anything.

Greg wasn't by any means a big guy. I think D was bigger than him even. Greg probably topped off at five foot nine and one hundred and fifty pounds. And if D looked like an overgrown frat boy, Greg was still the huge nerd he'd always been. Thick glasses and a comb over type style. But, as my mother always said he had a certain charisma and charm that people loved. As I got into his Silverado, I couldn't help but shake a little with nervousness. And a moment later it was completely justified.

"What the hell were you thinking you stupid…" I kind of zoned out at the start of his little rampage. I understood that he was furious and would probably take the belt to me once we got home. He was so angry that he nearly drove through two stop signs, a red light, and missed the turn onto our street. I heard 'your father' and 'idiot' and 'drunk' thrown into the rant. I was one of those kids that just blocked things out. Some kids would listen and cry. And then some would be like me and just not listen. I knew what he was saying. He was angry. He hated me blah blah blah. I knew I'd be getting the belt later so why listen to his rant? I knew he was mad. I knew he didn't believe that the wine just appeared in my water bottle. That's all I needed to know.

I wasn't even sure what happened to me at school. Was I expelled? Was I suspended? I don't know. This was the worst thing that happened so far, but a lot of bad things had happened before. My mom and Greg just always opened their checkbooks and got me out of trouble. Perks going to a private school, I suppose.

Once we were out of the car and walking up the garage steps he grabbed me by my arm and yanked me into the house. "Get your sorry ass up to your room. I'll be there after I phone your mother!" he snapped as he pushed me towards the stairs. I went up to my room.

Let's just say the next hour wasn't pleasant. I waited several minutes for Greg to come up, belt in hand. By the time he was done my butt was so sore I couldn't even lie down on my back. I didn't know what time it was, but I knew that it was close to dinner. I was hungry, but didn't dare go down for food. Not with Greg sitting down there in the living room. Sometime later my mom came up with a plate of food. I was laying on my stomach reading that book my dad had given me. I barely had time to show it under my pillow.

"Hey Chelsea. Greg told me what happened at school." She said softly putting the sandwich on my nightstand.

"I'm sure he did. Mom, I didn't bring wine to school, I swear. It just appeared there." I told her, a slight whine to my voice. I hated when people didn't believe me. I wasn't lying either. "You can ask Forester! He knows too! He'll tell you!"

"What's done is done, Chelsea. I'd rather you not lie to my face. I knew your father had a bit of a wine problem and that you'd be at risk, but I didn't think it'd start this early." She told me, though the last bit was more of a soft whisper as if she was talking to herself.

"I get, okay? You hate my real dad and you hate me!" I snapped as I took the pillow and covered my head with it. I hated her always talking about my dad like he was some nutcase drunk. I mean, I was half him! I wasn't ever going to be half Greg or half somebody else.

"Chelsea, you're putting words in my mouth. I love you. Don't ever think differently." She said in her calm, soothing voice. Sometimes I just wished that she'd show some more emotion. "You aren't going to be thrown out of school though. Though they suggested that you not come back for the rest of the year."

"A week extra of summer break? Sounds good to me." I muttered as I stared at my pillow.

"You're going to spend it doing chores. And Greg has offered to stay home with you."

"Gods, Mom." I muttered. She left. I spent the evening alone. Not that that was any different. I was slowly working my way through the different lists of monsters, but I was always drawn back to the pages on the Gods. I couldn't help, but think that Dionysus was mocking me with that whole wine thing.


	3. I certainly wasn't expecting that

It wasn't that I hated hard work. Well, I kind of did, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Greg found the worst things for me to do. I hated weeding the garden. I was just…well, I don't know how someone can be bad at wedding a garden, but I am. In fact, most of the time the stupid garden in our backyard looks worse after I've been pulling weeds for nearly an hour than before I started. I don't know why, but our stupid yard had this stupid strawberry problem. You know…those wild strawberries that parents usually tell their kids not to eat (well, at least my mom always told me to never eat them). There were just tons of them. Everywhere. Just everywhere. It drove Greg nuts because even though he didn't take care of the garden he was just so anal about everything that it needed to look perfect especially when he had friends coming over and they were on Wednesday, so I had just today, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning to make the garden (and everything else) look perfect.

"Oh god darn it all!" I muttered to myself as I hunched over on my knees pulling angry at the little weeds that just kept growing. "What is this? You stupid strawberries." I was just glad Greg wasn't breathing down my neck and was in his room napping. I finally stopped pulling at the berries. My hands were stained with berry juice, dirt, and grass stains. My legs and shorts and shirt were in similar condition, especially my knees from leaning in the dirt for about an hour or more. Before that I'd been mowing the grass and before that cleaning the garage and before that washing the car. Greg had woken me up at six in the morning to get started. After all, he said, I was on punishment. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I didn't care anymore. I just collapsed backwards and closed my eyes as the early summer sun warmed my skin. It was a nice day. Beautiful day.

I really didn't want to move, but I heard footsteps near the door to the house. I sat up quickly, but didn't see anyone. Then the screen door opened and I stood up in with just enough time to see the top of an unkempt head hurry into the house. Maybe one of those annoying little brats from next door was up to their thieving ways again. I hated those two little brats. Always taking my stuff, but no one ever believed that those little twerps ever did anything. Stupid Todd and Chris or whatever the heck there names were. I couldn't remember them for the life me, but I shook my head and quickly got my ADHD in check.

Someone just snuck into the house and I was going to get blamed for whatever happened. And that was not going to happen. I'd probably get stuck painting the house (not that I could even finger paint). Ignoring the fact that those freaking strawberries had grown back and I was covered in dirt and grass, I made my way slowly into the house; the sliding glass door was still ajar. I poked my head inside slowly to see a…

Honestly, I don't know how to describe the thing that I saw. It definitely wasn't those annoying little brats from across the street. It wasn't even human. It was like a little goblin thing rummaging through the cabinets. It sort of looked like something resembling a human, but had an oddly moldy skin color and long pointed ears and was wearing rags for clothes, but they didn't really look like cloth. And I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. I screamed. Then it screamed. I knew it was going to wake Greg up, but I didn't care. After a bit of screaming, I grabbed the nearest thing, a broom, and swung at the thing. "What the heck are you!" I yelled. However, before the thing could answer I heard Greg coming down the stairs and finally into the kitchen.

"Oh for the Lord's sake, Chelsea! You let a bleeding raccoon into the house!" Greg groaned as he grabbed my arm and yanked me away from that little demon creature.

"Raccoon? That is not a raccoon!" I yelled, knowing that I was looking at him like the moron he was. That? A raccoon? No way. I knew what a raccoon was. That was not a raccoon. Then the little demon thing smirked and started running around the house and causing everything to fall from the shelves. Greg, thinking he had no other choice, yanked me out of the house and called animal control. Before they showed up though, I saw the little creature sneaking out of the house and towards the fence. Greg was busy yelling on the phone, to my mother, probably. I didn't waste any time in jumping over the fence and chasing after the thing. That thing quickly realized I was following him and picked up the pace. Soon I was chasing him through the neighborhood park. Finally, luck seemed to be on my side and I was able to tackle the creature.

Though, pinning him down was no easy task. I'm sure I cut myself a few times and I was definitely going to be sore if I made it out of this freakish dream alive. Finally though I managed to sit on top of the little bugger and almost strangle him.

"Okay! Now! You're going to tell me what the heck you are!" I yelled as it still continued to squirm.

"My name is Griph." He said through my strangle hold. I loosened it enough so that he could breathe probably.

"What are you?" I repeated, my breathing coming out as a slight wheezing from the physical strain.

"Mortals call me a Kobalos." It muttered. I was confused. Maybe I'd read that word somewhere. Like in my book that my dad gave me.

"Okay. Better question. What are you doing in my house? And why the heck did you destroy the place? I'm going to be murdered because of you!" I said, shaking the thing slightly.

"You smelled like him."

"Him?"

"Yes. Him."

"Him who?"

"Chelsea!" I turned my head and see a familiar face running towards me. Forester. Once near me he keeled over to catch his breath. However he straightened up when he saw the thing that I was sitting on-the Kobalos. His face paled.

"Tell me you see something other than a raccoon." I begged. I couldn't be going insane. Not at this age. I was too young ago to go crazy.

"Uh. Yeah. That's a Kobalos. Though he's a little far from home!" he snapped at the little goblin thing. He didn't look happy. "What has he told you?" he asked urgently.

"Dude, what's going on with you?" I asked before I answered his question. "I mean. He just said I smelled like 'him'." I got up off the little creature and he seemed thankful, though he didn't run away like I thought he would. I brushed my messy curls out of my face and looked at Forester.

"What's going on?" I asked. Forester looked at him. And much to my disgust he started taking off his clothes. Luckily we were in a secluded part of the park. Not that it mattered, at least it seemed Forester wouldn't care one way or another. "Dude! What are you doing!" I yelled as I covered my face and mostly my eyes with my hands. When he didn't answer I peeked through my fingers. I probably would have preferred to see his exposed body to what I saw.

From the waist up he looked like I would expect. From the waist down, though he was goat, though. My hands dropped to my side and my mouth dropped open.

"I'm a satyr. He's a Kobalos. You're a demi-God." He told me with a more serious face than I could have mustered saying those exact same things.

"A what now?" I asked.

"Half mortal. Half god. Your father is one of the Olympians."

"Pffft. D? A God? Which one then?" I asked with a roll of my eyes and my hands on my hips. This was just absurd.

"Dionysus!" Griph shouted.


	4. Never help a lady find her eyes

"Dionysus?" I asked as I looked at the things that were in front of me. I just couldn't…."Dionysus?" I asked again as if using a different tone of voice would make things easier to understand. "I've lost it. That's it. I've lost it." Gone mad. That had to be it. Just add lunacy to the ADHD and dyslexia, because obviously my brain was not screwed up enough already. Now I was seeing donkey people and tiny people and…and…

"Chelsea…" Forester started. Something else seemed to be bothering him. He did seem so much concerned with the way I was reacting about hearing this stuff, but with something that would happen in the future. I was confused. I didn't have my bedroom to run to and hide, the comforting purple walls and my stuffed leopard.

Why did everything have to make sense now? The leopard. The purple. The freaking strawberries! My thoughts were broken up as I crashed onto the ground. Apparently in my worry I'd been stumbling around, talking to myself. At least that's what Forester would tell me later. Then I tripped over a branch and found myself spitting out a mouthful of dirt and I didn't want to know what else. Things couldn't be making sense. Because this could not make sense. No. No. No.

"Chelsea?" Forester asked again for the I don't know how many times. Finally I was able to push myself to my feet again. This was making all the sense in the world while making none at all. I mean. D? D was Dionysus? I just…it was so hard to wrap my head around it, halfway through I just gave up and did what I was good at, I pretended not to hear Forester and headed intently in the opposite direction.

"CHELSEA!" he yelled as his feet-er, hooves clapped against the ground. "CHELSEA!" Finally I couldn't ignore the screaming nor the grunts from the little troll that was hurrying after both of us.

"WHAT?" I shrieked in a voice that had usually gotten me smacked from either my mother or Greg. Yeah. That tone of voice definitely would have gotten me smacked, but I could tell by the look on Forester's face that he wasn't going to slap me. Probably because he knew that if he did I'd smack in back.

"You can't just wander around alone anymore. Now that you know what you are, who you are things are going to be coming after you. Especially because of this creep's scent it all over you too." He said kicking Griph. "Way to pay thanks to your master." Forester muttered angrily at the creature. I felt bad instantly. Griph looked completely pathetic as he stood there, head hanging.

"It's not his fault Forester. Don't be such a jerk to him." I blurted out as I watched the two. Forester seemed a bit taken aback at my outburst. "If my father was so worried about my safety he'd have done something about this a long time ago." I said as I started to walk again in the direction of the park. No way was I going to stay in the park when the sun was slowly starting to fall. I guess I'd been chasing after Griph for a little longer than I thought. Or I had completely spaced out for a long time. Either would make sense. I had a terrible habit of zoning out for far too long. As my poor grades could definitely attest to…

"Is someone there?" a faint voice called. I glanced at Forester. The voice seemed troubled or like whoever was speaking was in trouble. He hurriedly pulled the cargo pants he'd been wearing earlier back on and shrugged.

"I don't think we should get involved." He said.

"It sounds like some lady needs help." I insisted as I hurried towards the voice. I didn't understand why Forester was suddenly all paranoid about things. Did he really think things were suddenly going to come jump out of the bushes at us any minute? I doubted that. I mean…monsters didn't just appear in the middle of Alexandria like that. I'd never been bothered before. How could just knowing who I was, if any of this was true, make monsters appear.

The leaves made a lot of noise as we walked down the path. The sun was starting to set, but now I was more concerned about helping whoever needed help. The answer was soon clear though. There was a lady stumbling around with her eyes closed patting the ground.

"Is something there?" she asked again. She looked down. "I've lost my eyes. Please help me?" Eyes? Well, I had heard my grandfather refer to his glasses as his eyes before. Maybe it was just an expression. My grandfather was from Ohio. Maybe this lady was too.

"Oh. Um. Sure." I said as I started closer to her. My eyes were darting across the ground. Eventually I bent down and started brushing through the leaves that were still on the ground. Whether Forester was helping or not, I didn't notice. And I didn't care either. I was still angry at him. Then my fingers graced across something that seemed sticky. I pushed a few more leaves aside…

"AGH!" I said falling backwards onto my butt. My brown eyes were staring at another set of eyes. Eyeballs on the freaking ground. Eyeballs. What the heck was going on?

"You found them." The high breathy voice of the woman said as she came in my direction. She was surprisingly accurate for a woman with…What the heck! Her eye sockets really were missing her eye balls. Barely two feet away from me she scooped up the eyeballs and popped them back into place. Once they were inside her sockets she looked at me and smirked.

"A child." She said, the smirk on her face widening. She took a deep breath and the smirk only got bigger, if that was possible. "A god's child. Dionysus, correct?"

"How…how…how…" I stuttered, completely frozen. Maybe she was going to be a good monster thing like Forester and Griph. They were nice, right? She could be too… Then I felt Forester's hands grabbing my arm and pulling my slightly.

"We've got to get out of here!" he snapped as I struggled to my feet, still staring at the woman.

"So soon? But I just love children." The woman said as she took a few steps closer to me. Ina split second, though her normal appearance was gone. She was bigger. Like seven feet tall now and her freaking mouth was huge. Like could swallow me whole huge. I couldn't get my feet to move fast enough. Or at all.

"Chelsea! Run!" Forester said as he pulled on my arm. I finally started moving again and man was I running like the wind. Oh Hermes grant me swiftness to get away from this thing! I barely had time to think about where that prayer came from as I ran.

"Come back little one! You look good enough to eat!" I heard from the now raspy voice as thundering footsteps chased after us. I was pretty sure I was screaming and praying for help. I was pretty sure Griph and Forester were screaming as well. Then suddenly there was a loud crash and curse words. At least I'm pretty sure those were curse words. Unable to resist I looked behind and saw that she was sort of tangled in a mess of vines.

"Chelsea! Are-" Forester stopped as he saw the thing woman monster thing as well and looked at me. "Do it some more, Chelsea! Do it!" He shouted hurriedly as she started to chew through the vines that were growing around her and restraining her.

"Do what?" I yelled back.

"Make the vines grow! You can control them!" he yelled at me again. How the heck was I supposed to do that? Make the vines grow!

"Grow vines! Grow! Grow!" I yelled as I stared at her, while praying that that would work. Maybe one of the Gods heard me. Soon though she was completely covered by them. They were growing tighter and tighter around her, choking her I guess. She found it hard to scream. And then…

I shook my head. She did not just exploded in a cloud of dust. No way.

"Way to go, Chelsea." Forester said clasping my shoulder. "But we've got to go."

"What…what…" I stuttered as I watched the vines begin to disappear into the forest again. Going back to wherever they came from.

"Lamia. She used to be a beautiful queen. Zeus had an affair with her. Hera murdered her children. Grief drove her crazy and turned her into a monster. She likes eating children." Forester explained.

"What? She was really going to eat me?" I asked. "But she's dead now, right?" I asked.

"For now. Monsters come back. It's a never ending cycle. But we gotta go." Forester said grabbing my hand as we hurried away from the scene of the crime…battle…whatever. Griph was still pattering after us. "Man would you beat it?" Forester spat at the little thing creature. Kobalos. Yeah. That's what he was called.

"No. He doesn't have to go away." I blurted out and this seemed to make the little Kobalos happier. He was the first thing to actively seek me out. And if he stuck around maybe that would show my dad that I was worth something. At least I hoped so.

On the way back to my house we didn't say anything. I was too out of breath to say anything. Too tired. I just wanted to sleep. Or wake up from this nightmare. Either would work at this point. I wasn't being picky. Though I was extremely confused as to how no one seemed to notice that Griph was definitely not a human. No one gave us a second glance. Once at my house Forester barged right into the place and I hurried after him.

"Chelsea! What's going on? Where have you been?" My mother asked swooping down on me like only a worried mother can when their child finally shows up. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Luckily Forester seemed to be able to talk for me.

"She knows. She needs to get to camp. Like now."

"What? Forester…how do you know?" my mother asked.

"You knew?" I yelled suddenly. "All this time? You knew? You knew about D?" I took a few steps backwards and ran my fingers through my hair. A few leaves fell out of my hair.

"Chelsea…I couldn't tell you. I didn't want you…I was trying to protect." My mother said as she pulled me into a hug that I really didn't want to be in. Suddenly I felt tears falling down my cheeks and sobbing noises coming from my throat. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight as I cried.

This wasn't very. The whole lot of it. It just couldn't be happening. This. I didn't want this. I didn't want to be the child of a God. I just wanted to be Chelsea Nicole Nichols. "I don't want to go, Mom. I don't know what Forester is talking about, but I don't want to go. I want to stay here. Mom…please…don't make me go."


	5. The long trip to camp

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Man, I am so sorry this has taken so long. This last month and a half has been epically crazy. Luckily, the spring semester is over and I should be updating fairly regularly.

It didn't take long for Forester to really convince my mother that we had to leave. In fact, my mother was way more cool about it than what I would have thought. That only made me angry though. That just meant that she knew what was going to happen the entire time. She knew that D was Dionysus. She knew what I was. I guess after having a kid with a God, a goat boy didn't seem all that strange. I still didn't understand why no one else saw it fit to tell me what I was. I didn't believe Forester when he said that just knowing what I was made me more obvious to the monster. How could that change anything?

I tried not to think about it though. It wasn't even eight o'clock in the morning and we were all packed into my mom's trailblazer. Well, not really packed, because it was a pretty big car. I didn't want to talk to my mother or Forester so I sat in the backseat with Griph and attempted to teach him out to play Go Fish. It wasn't working out too well. And even though Forester thought it was a bad idea for Grip to come along, I insisted. No, I downright refused to go anywhere unless Griph came with me. I guess I was just stubborn because for the first time someone wanted to be around me. It was more than I could say for my father. Dionysus. D. Whatever. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to call him these days.

"No. No. No. You don't actually eat the cards. They aren't fish." I sighed as I pulled the card from his mouth. I glanced at the front seat and then quickly wiped his spit off on the seat that was in between us.

"Chelsea?" Forester asked as he turned his head slightly to look at me. I didn't look at him. Didn't want to talk to him. I still wasn't sure whether we had ever actually been friends or if he was just doing his job. It figured…the one friend I had in the world and now he was just a phony. Like everyone else. At least I had Griph now though. Even if he was a creepy troll thing, he was still better than being alone, I guessed.

"Chelsea?" he repeated. I'm pretty sure that he said it more than just those two times, but I ignored him for a while. He got the hint though and he didn't try to talk to me again for a while. I'm pretty sure it wasn't until we had crossed into Delaware.

"Can we please talk, Chelsea?" he asked finally as he reached up and turned down the radio that was beginning to be just plain static anyway.

My mother looked at me through the mirror and begrudgingly nodded. "Dear, you need to clear the air before we get to New York. It's not going to make things any easier if you're in a bad mood when we arrive. "

"Fine." I muttered.

I didn't really listen to what he had to say. He said that he was sorry for lying to me and everything, but he had to do it. He also made sure to tell me several times that he was still my friend and that it wasn't a lie. Finally though, he concluded with, "Can we please be friends again?"

"Okay." I finally relented. I knew that going to this place would only be tougher if I didn't have Forester with me. My mother had been silent while Forester went on his tirade, but my eyes turned on her. I wasn't sure how to phrase everything I wanted to ask, but like she always did. She spoke before I could say anything.

"I met your father when I was in college. At a party. At the time I just assumed he was a member of the fraternity. I didn't really question it at the time. He was just so…full of life. Always smiling. He's not a bad man, Chelsea. I know you've seen nothing but my anger towards him. And I am angry. I always will be. I don't think it's really at him. More the situation. I don't know. It's…I just think that you should give this a chance. Don't let my anger direct you."

Our eyes met in the mirror again and I was the first to look away. Was she just trying to make me feel better about the situation? I didn't know. "I'm gonna take a nap." I finally said, not wanting to deal with grown up problems. I was only eleven. This wasn't fair. I'd finally started sleeping with the door closed only to find out that the monsters were real.

I guess I was more tired than I thought, but I woke up and we were almost there. I guess I felt less tired, but now my stomach was in knots. When the car finally stopped it was in front of an old farm house.

"Ready, Chelsea?" Forester asked as my mom's car came to a stop.

"Yeah." What else was I even going to say besides yes? I didn't know. "But it's just for the summer, right?"

"Of course." My mom said as she got out of the car. The rest of us followed suit. She went to the back to get my bags. I didn't have much. Just a backpack and two duffle bags.

"Don't worry, Chelsea. This is for the best." She said as she pulled me into a hug. It seemed like forever before she released me and looked at Forester and Griph. "Take care of my baby." She told them. I tried not to cry and told her my goodbyes before following Forester up the hill. When we got to the top a lot more buildings were visible. We continued to walk only until I heard Griph calling my name.

"Can't get through." He muttered.

"Forester, what's going on?" I asked with a frown looking at him.

"He's a monster. They can't come through." Forester told me.

"No. No. No. I'm not going anywhere without Griph." I said stubbornly as I walked through the force field to stand near Griph.

"Chelsea!" he groaned.

"Nope. Not coming through." I said stubbornly.

"I can't-you don't…Cripes, Chelsea-"

"It's alright, Forester. " a deep voice said coming up to stand behind Forester. My eyes widened. No way. There was a horse dude. He was huge. Like Forester but half horse. Weren't they called centaurs?

"Chiron!" he said with a start and looked very sheepish.

"Kobalos, you are invited in." the horseman said.


	6. Welcome to the camp

**Author's Note:** Okay. So it's been MONTHS since I've updated and I do truly apologize for that. Mostly because during the semester I do have time on my hands, but over the summer I was working two jobs that totaled about 60 hours a week. Here's to hoping I can get back on track with this story.

I didn't move for a minute and neither did Griph. I guess the reason was because he wasn't sure what was supposed to change. I guess he felt the force field or whatever the technical term for it was disappear. It was only after Griph seemed to be satisfied that he was allowed in the camp that I followed after him. I wasn't sure what to say to the centaur that Forester had called Chiron. I felt like I knew that name, but whatever I knew about it hadn't stuck with me-just the name. The way Forester reacted though I could tell that he was important. Still my eyes just lingered on him, mostly they were darting from his human half to his horse half. At least I could sort of guess where Forester's internal organs were. With this guy I was starting to think he had two sets like two stomachs and four lungs.

"You must be Chelsea." He said as I finally approached the strange threesome. I nodded. My voice seemed to disappear. I was still feeling a little nervous (okay really nervous) about the entire thing. What was my mom thinking shipping me off to this freak show? Well, I guess I belonged to the freak show now. I missed home already. This New York air was different. I didn't like it one bit. "You look extraordinarily like your father." He commented.

"I've heard." I grumbled without really thinking. I'd heard it before from my mother and hearing it from this guy didn't make it any better. I didn't want to look like my father. Not at all. My mom was pretty. I wanted to look like her. It only caused the centaur to chuckle though and he turned around and started walking. Assuming I was to follow him, I did, shortly followed by Forester and Griph. As we reached the top of the hill completely I was met with a…well, I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what I saw. Immediately I noticed a large house to the left and then some volleyball courts with a bunch of older kids it looked like playing as well as a few other buildings.

Chiron stopped for a moment. I guess he was letting me take in the site. It was a summer camp on steroids, that was for sure. "This is Camp Half-Blood. A safe haven for demi-gods."

"Jesus Christ, how many demi-gods are there in the world?" I blurted out as I looked around. There was a ton here.

"More than can be accounted for. The gods…have a lot of time on their hands." Chiron said as we walked down the hill. That got a snicker from both Griph and Forester. I knew what it meant. I wasn't stupid. But I also didn't want to think about how many kids my dad had. That was gross. Like thinking about my mom and Greg. Ew. I glanced around at the different buildings and was sort of lost in thought as we walked. Chiron's voice snapped me out of my amazement though.

"Wesley!" he called to a boy that was walking by. He looked to be about the same age as me. He was taller though and had really nice blonde hair as well as very green eyes. He was wearing a simple pair of shorts and a tee shirt that had the words 'Camp Half-Blood' written on the front. He was pretty cute, I thought as what I knew was a pretty stupid grinned crossed my face.

"Yeah, Chiron?" he asked as he approached the group. "Hey Forester." He added, but a confused look crossed his face as he saw Griph. Finally his eyes locked with mine and I felt my face go even darker.

"Wesley, this is Chelsea Nichols. She's a new camper. Would you mind showing her around and getting her settled in her cabin?"

"Oh. Yeah. No problem. But you mean she's already been claimed?" he asked with a weird look on his face. It was then that Chiron had an equally weird look on his face. And I was finally reminded about what I wanted to ask Chiron about. My father. I thought he would have been waiting for me. Or something. At least said Hi or something. I figured he must be busy, but still…

"Take her to Cabin Twelve." Chiron told him with a nod.

"Tw-twelve?" he asked and then looked at me with a bewildered expression on his face. I tried to shrug it off and turned to ask Chiron about my father, but he was already walking away.

"I'll talk to you later Chelsea, I gotta go talk to some people." Forester said as he trotted off after Chiron. I turned to look at the blonde boy who was still giving me a very strange look.

"Um…Hi." I said as I tightened my grip on my backpack.

"Cabin twelve, huh? Wow. I never thought I'd see the day." He said as he turned and started walking to the cabins. At least a lot of kids were coming and going from a strange set of buildings.

"Wait. I don't…what?"

"Well, here the cabins are decided by who your god parent is. I live in four. My mother is Demeter. There are twelve cabins in all. Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Artemis and until now Dionysus, have all been empty. Well, I mean…it's just been a long time since anyone's been in Zeus or Poseidon or Dionysus's cabin…" he trailed off, "And Hera and Artemis…Well, Hera doesn't go for mortals and Artemis is a virgin."

"So I get a cabin all by myself? Sweet." I said. I had been worried about having to share room with other people. I was used to being an only child and having my own room. "So all the Olympians have cabins?"

"Yep. Cabin one is Zeus. Cabin two is Hera. Three is Poseidon. Four is Demeter. Five is Ares. Six is Athena. Seven is Apollo. Eight is Artemis. Nine Hephaestus. Ten is Aphrodite. Eleven Hermes. And twelve will be yours." As he listed off the numbers, we walked by each. They were all very different. A few things did stand out. Cabin number nine had a lot of smoke coming out of it and elven had a ton of kids running in and out of it.

When we stopped at what would be my cabin I frowned. It looked like crap. It was covered in vines, but they were all sort of dying. My dislike I guess was obvious, but Wesley just laughed.

"Your father is the god of the vine, Chelsea. I think, being that you're his daughter, you could fix that." He said nudging me forward. "Show me what you can do." I had no idea what he was talking about. Then the flashback of that monster lady popped into my mind. Biting down, I reached out and touched one of the vines, expecting something to happen.

It didn't.

"Well, I guess…I just can't do that. Are we supposed to have powers?"

"Yeah. We're supposed to." He responded. Maybe they only worked when I was upset. Well, I was kind of upset now. "Maybe you should go and get settled in. I can't go in there with you. Camp rules." he said quickly, "Um. When you hear the call, it's dinner time." He said before disappearing into a throng of people. I glanced around and realized I had forgotten about Griph. I just saw him hurrying into the cabin. I grabbed my stuff and hurried inside.

It was dusty and looked like it hadn't been used in a very long time. There were just as many dead vines hanging around the inside as there was on the outside. A bowl of shriveled up grapes were sitting on a table near a singular bed. I guess Wesley was right. This place didn't get used much. Maybe my dad did have…well, he definitely wasn't reproducing like the other gods, especially Hermes apparently. That one had a ton of people.

I glanced out of one of the dirty windows and watched the groups run around together. At least they all seemed to be having fun. Maybe once I got into the swing of things, I'd have fun to. Just because my dad didn't have any other kids didn't mean I was going to be alone all the time. Wesley seemed nice. Sort of. "What do you think Griph?" I asked turning around to see the little Kobalos inspecting a mural on the wall. I think they were called frescas? Maybe. I don't know. It was painted on the wall. Not just a regular old framed picture. "Wow. That's pretty cool."

The majority of the picture was a leopard mixed in an earthy scenery. On another wall was a group of women and satyrs. The other two walls were painted purple. I liked that. "Like it here." Griph finally said as he looked around the room.

"Okay, good." At least I had him to talk to. "Can you like go find me something so I can clean up this joint?" I asked. He seemed eager to please and disappeared. Not long after he came back with a few spray bottles and rolls of paper towels. He even helped me clean the place up and beat out the bed linens. They sort of reminded me a little of mine back home. Purple and soft. I'd have to wash them later, but they'd do for now, I figured.

"Go to forest now." He said with a nod after we had finished cleaning the place. It wasn't spotless, but at least it looked livable. Lacking a trash can I ended up turning a vase into a trash can and dropping all the used paper towels into it. It was about that time that I heard a strange sound.

I guess that meant that it was time for dinner. Everyone else was lining up so they were all going somewhere. Even if it wasn't dinner I figured I'd be needed to. It was a quick walk, but I didn't really say anything. I hung around in the back of the lines and just followed everyone. When we arrived the place looked like something that could be in Harry Potter I thought.

I was the last person that walked into the dining room place thing and when I walked in I wasn't expecting what I saw.

My father.


	7. Not exactly what I hoped for

**Author's Note:** I know it's been a while guys, but I've had a lot going on. So if you want the next chapter ASAP send me more reviews!

Suddenly, I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't realize how long I was just standing in the entrance and people were starting to stare at me. I wasn't hungry anymore and I felt my face starting to burn red. I didn't know what to do. Or where I was supposed to sit. Crap. People were staring. And starting to talk about them. It was then that I saw Forester sitting near my father and motioning for me to come to the table where they were sitting along with a few other satyrs and Chiron was standing on one end.

"Well, if she's not made it painfully obvious, we have a new camper. Chelsea Nichols. And if she'll kindly take her seat, then we can begin." There were a several laughs from the tables, especially a group of rather burly, big looking kids. By this time I knew my face was burning red even though I couldn't see it. What made it worse was that it was my dad that said those words. I wasn't sure what else to do besides hurry over to the table and sit down next to Forester. I just stared down at my lap and wasn't sure what to say to anyone or even where to look. I just wanted the floor to swallow up and eat me. I didn't look around, or even at my father. I couldn't tell who was looking at me. Not that I was anything to look at. Just a freak, I guess.

I was barely aware of the food appearing on the table. It wasn't until Forester nudged me in the shoulder gently that I finally looked up and noticed that people were dumping bits of food into a fire. "Sacrifices. To the gods." He muttered. I just nodded, still feeling a bit sick to my stomach. I followed him and without thinking pushed most of the food into the fire. I wasn't hungry anyway.

If I would have known how awkward dinner was going to be, I probably would have dumped it all into the fire and ran back to my cabin. I don't know if it was just me feeling that way, but it certainly felt like everyone was pretty tense at the table. Except my dad. He seemed perfectly calm and collected, at least when I finally dared to look at him. He looked the same as he did whenever he visited me at home. This certainly wasn't how I expected it to happen. Our eyes met and for the first time I realized that his eyes seemed purple and not the dark, dark almost black color I always thought they were.

"So. You're mother finally realized that it was time to stop listening to that idiot husband of hers?" he said as he took a sip of diet coke. I just nodded, my stomach still in my throat. "Your mother used to be her own person, you know. Don't know what happened to her."

I was starting to get angry. He shouldn't be saying those things about my mom. She was the good one, he was the one that just ditched us. Ditched us and that was what let Greg get into our lives. If he would have just stayed all along things…I don't know how things would have been.

"Greg's not that bad." As much as I didn't want to admit to it. Greg did a lot for me and my mom. Paid for all the different schools I had to attend because of all the things I did. And some times were good. Maybe he knew what was going on the entire time. When I looked up at my real dad though, I knew he wasn't happy to hear that.

"Don't expect any special treatment because…" He didn't finish his sentence, but I figured that it would end with 'you're my daughter'. I guess it kind of hurt that he couldn't even use the word daughter to describe me. I guess I wasn't that special. I mean, according to Wesley all the other kids could do things. I couldn't even make vines grow. I really couldn't eat anything and just started pushing the food around on my plate. "Because you're not going to get it."

Maybe I did expect some sort of special treatment. After all, he did abandon me and my mom. Never told me anything about who I was. What I was. Anything so I didn't have to find out what was going on when I was being chased down by a monster trying to kill me. And even if he didn't like my mom anymore he could have at least come around more for my sake. He was a god, right? Couldn't he just poof himself down to Arlington or something?

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" I finally blurted out. Forester who had been munching on a few pieces of paper froze and looked at me, slowly.

"You found out eventually didn't you?" He replied without missing a beat. I stared at him for a moment and decided that that was probably the best answer I could expect from him.

"Why didn't you come around more?" All the questions I had were finally coming to the surface before I could even think about them.

"That isn't how these things work."

"Why didn't you just come take me if you were so worried about me being raised by Greg? I would've come with you."

That seemed to be the one question that got to him. His eyes seemed to flare like a bright purple flame for a moment, but subsided so fast that I wasn't sure that I actually saw it.

"No more questions." He said simply. I knew he was serious and everyone else at the table seemed to relax at least outwardly. The rest of the meal continued on in silence at least on my part. I just sort of sat there awkwardly until everyone else started to leave the dining area. I walked back to Cabin Twelve and was joined by Griph halfway there.

"Why you not happy?" he asked as he tilted his head and looked up at me. I shrugged.

"I don't know, Griph. It's just…I don't know. It's been a long day. I don't know how to feel about this place." I told him as I walked up the steps to the cabin and pushed open the door. I didn't even bother changing into anything and just flopped down on my bed. I did dig through one of my bags to find my stuffed leopard. I flopped backwards again and clutched the stuffed animal to my chest.

I don't know when I finally fell asleep, but I did. It must have been quite early though because I woke up pretty early. The sun was barely up it seemed. I tried to lay in bed for a little while, but that didn't really help. I needed to get up and move around.

"Griph, go away for a minute, huh, I need to change." I said as the little goblin like creature stumbled out of the bed and walked out of the cabin. I changed into my same old clothes. Shorts and a tee shirt with my sneakers.

The rest of the camp was still sleeping apparently, but I decided to take the time to look around. I didn't get much of a chance to yesterday having arrived so close to dinner time. It was a pretty big place, I thought. The cabins alone took up a lot of space. I wandered around until I saw the Amphitheater. I had seen something like that before. It looked like the one my mom showed me when we went to her old college, the University of Virginia. They had a real big one and a small one too. Some of the other buildings were normal. I guess most summer camps had an archery range or whatever it was called. The arena looked a little weird, but I guess if demigods were getting trained than it was kind of needed.

I found my way to the strawberry fields. I don't know how to explain what it felt like, but something about being there made me feel comfortable. Relaxed.

"You'll be responsible for making sure these get tended to now. Demeter's cabin has been taking care of them, but they're you're specialty." A voice said suddenly. If I had been old I would have died of a heart attacked. I turned on my heel immediately.

It was Chiron. I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or not to see him. He seemed a lot calmer than he was at dinner. That was super awkward, I knew.

"I'm not very good with anything. Wesley tried to get me to fix the vines on my cabin, but nothing happened. " I told him, "I might just kill them."

"Nonsense. You're a demigod. Just like all the other children here. You have your gifts. You'll learn to use them in time." Chiron said as he glanced up at the sky that was starting to get brighter. There was a long pause between that and what he said next. "I'll tell you what I tell every child that passes through this camp. Impress yourself. Make yourself pride of who you are. That is all that matters."

He didn't say it, but I knew that he was talking about impressing my dad. I figured it'd be hard to impress a god, but the way Chiron said it it sounded a lot better than just giving up.


	8. It was all great until

**Author's Note:** I don't think I've mentioned it, but this takes place in the summer of 1995. So before Percy, before Luke and Annabeth and Thalia even.

After talking to Chiron, I felt pretty good about the day that was ahead. I figured if Chiron could calm down so easily he would be a pretty good teacher. I like him a lot. More than I liked my own dad at this point. More than I liked Greg. And I only knew him for less than a day. As we walked back towards the dining pavilion we talked about what my schedule was like. I wasn't really keen about most of the activities. After all, I wasn't really a physically fit person. Luckily, though he seemed to be kinder when it came to who I would be doing these things with. Because there was only one of me in my cabin it wasn't too hard to just squeeze me in places.

I'd be taking Ancient Greek with Aphrodite's cabin in the morning. Then weapons making with the boys of Hephaestus's cabin. I'd do archery one on one with Chiron. Then Greek mythology taught be one of the satyrs with Hermes' cabin. Of course there would be rather unfun things in between like cleaning the stables and other stuff. But over all a lot of things sounded fun. Though, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to learn how to ride a Pegasus. That seemed….terrifying.

I could see that meals were going to be a daily challenge, three times a day in fact. My dad was going to be there unless he had some business on Olympus to deal with but those times were rare (at least I thought so because shouldn't a god be busy all the time?). I guess if I just focused enough on other things I could ignore the fact that my father was just there, ignoring me as best he could, which was an impressive thing to do, really.

Chiron and I walked into the dining pavilion, I didn't receive as many stares as I had the previous night which made things a little easier, I guess. I was feeling better so I guess breakfast was easier to get through because I wasn't feeling so crummy after a long car drive and I knew what to expect from my father. Being completely ignored or backhanded comments. I spent most of the meal talking to Forester about the various other campers and who I should watch out for. He said most of the kids were nice, but there were a couple in the Ares cabin to watch out for and a few in the Aphrodite cabin were just plain catty sometimes.

Once breakfast was over my nerves were taking over as I walked to where Ancient Greek was taught, not sure how they expected me to be able to learn Greek. I couldn't even learn English up to standards in school. When I walked in I was the last person in, there were about ten girls in the Aphrodite cabin and the class was being taught by a really cute older boy in the Athena cabin. Will was his name and he had the same pretty grey eyes that all his siblings had. They were all staring at me for a moment when I walked in.

"Um. Sorry. Got a little lost." I mumbled as I took one of the empty seats next to one of the other girls. "Hi, I'm Emily. Daughter of Aphrodite." She said as she looked at me. I stared at her, a bit confused. Most of the other kids gave me the impression they didn't want anything to do with me.

"Um…I'm Chelsea. Daughter of um…" I trailed off. I guess I was still getting used to the idea too.

"Yeah, I know." She said with a smile that seemed real. Not really what I would have expected from a daughter of Aphrodite. The way they carried on was annoying, like something from a movie. Snotty girls that were all obsessed with make-up and clothes and how they looked. Emily seemed friendly though. She was a pretty girl-the type of pretty that I always wanted to. Thin, blond hair, blue eyes. She didn't get to say much more before our tutor interrupted and a started us on a basic grammar lesson. I figured I'd be far behind, but as Will, the boy from Athena's cabin, told me we're all actually wired for ancient Greek and not English. He was even a little impressed with how fast I picked up on. Coming from a kid of Athena, I figured that meant a lot. And really most people never really told me I was good at much.

Once we were done with the lesson, Emily caught up with me again. "So how do you like camp so far?" she asked. She was still talking to me. That was surprising. I figured if I didn't even like my dad, other kids definitely wouldn't. So why would they hang out with me?

"Um. It's cool. I mean. I don't feel like a freak anymore." I told her honestly. I guess that was true. I really did feel like I fit in. Finally. "I don't know if I've been here long enough to judge the rest of it. Most people seem nice." I shrugged.

"Well, at least you don't completely hate it. My first summer here was awful. I mean, I had to come here all the way from Florida and was so homesick. So where are you from?" she asked quickly, very quickly.

"Um. Virginia. Kinda near DC." I told her as I shoved my hands into my pockets.

"That's cool. Does DC have a lot of good shopping?"

"I don't really know. I don't do a lot of shopping. And well, I guess my mom didn't want to risk putting me around the national government. We never really go into city." I guess that made sense now. Wouldn't look good if a monster attacked me if we were visiting the White House or something. That would be bad.

"Oh." She said with a bit of a frown, "Well you should. I live in Jersey! It's not that far from Virginia! Maybe during the school year you can come visit and I can take you shopping in New York! That'd be so much fun! It just sucks they don't let us leave camp during the summer." She sighed.

Wait. Did she really want to hang out with me? Emily was certainly very friendly. I didn't even mind that she loved talking about clothes and boys. I guess if I was going to have a friend that wanted to give me a makeover there wasn't a better pick than a daughter of Aphrodite. After finding out that she was from New Jersey, I found out a couple other things about her. She lived with her dad and grandparents. Her father was in the military. In the Navy to be exact. He was currently deployed. She was also a year older than me and had just finished sixth grade.

We were walking towards the forge where I'd be doing weapons making with the Hephaestus cabin. However, I nearly stopped in my tracks when a rather tall, but still lanky boy emerged out of the forge. He had dark brown hair, slightly curly, that didn't go past his ears. He also had the most gorgeous dark brown eyes. He did seem to be covered in soot though. "Who's that?" I asked quietly moving my eyes to my friend.

"Hector. Son of Hephaestus." Emily said, "Why? You think he's cute?"

"No." I muttered stubbornly and felt my cheeks start to burn red.

"Hector! Come over here!" Emily called waving to him. That seemed to shock the boy, who looked to be about my age, but he did come over.

"Um. Hi Emily." He said before glancing at me. "And you're Chelsea, right?" he asked as he looked at me. I just nodded.

"Yeah. That's me. The freakish daughter of Dionysus." I said with a small laugh.

"It's nice to meet you." He said as he shook my hand. Even though he was young his hand still felt rough and he had a very strong grip. "You're here for weapons making?" he asked.

"Yeah. I am."

"I'll see you too later. I've got archery." Emily said with a hint of a smirk as she skipped off towards the archery fields.

"Well, no better lot to learn from than Hephaestus's cabin." He said as he lead me into the forge. Let's just say that I nearly suffocated from all the smoke that was in there. I was pretty sure that anyone who spent that much time in the forge was going to develop lung cancer or something. But the boys of Hephaestus's cabin were exceedingly nice and cheerful. Hector was certainly the best looking of the lot. At least in my opinion anyway. Though I did find out that he was also really nice. He was from Texas and his mother had remarried like mine had, though his stepfather made Greg sound like the saint that he always thought himself to be.

The next few days seem to get better and better. Emily and I were quickly turning into fast friends. Hector and Wesley were usually seen hanging out with us as well. They had all been at camp before. Emily had been for three summers, Hector for two, and Wesley for one. I was the newbie among the lot, but it didn't bother me much. I was adjusting fairly well, I thought. I wasn't really great at much, though it turned out I could run pretty fast. Not as fast as the nymphs, or Hermes's cabin, or Apollo's cabin, but I could generally out race a lot of other campers, mostly the Ares' cabin that I shared that activity with.

But they were jerks. I hated them. Not many people like the Ares' cabin as whole it seemed. I had seen members of the cabin alone with other campers, but on their own they were different it seemed. Together they acted like a bunch of bullies. And every day when we had racing together it was the same mess. After a week of it I was really getting sick of it. I kept smoking them in the foot races and they were getting mad about it.

"You cheated! You took off early!" One of the thirteen year old boys said. His name was Jon and he was pretty big for a thirteen year old.

"I did not!" I snapped back. "You're just jealous I'm better than you." He had dirty blond hair and grey eyes and a really big nose and tried to be all punk and stuff. He just looked like a goon though.

"Did too!" he said as he finally shoved me.

"Liar!" I yelled as I pushed him back. I wasn't going to take his crap. The nymphs that were our instructors just seemed to be a bit bored with the fight, maybe a bit nervous. They didn't seem to want to get involved. Our yelling was certainly attracting a crowed.

He didn't seem to be happy that I pushed him back. Far from it, really. He pushed me again to the ground. I had never been much of a fighter, but I guess at this camp you needed to be. I jumped up and lunged at him. Taking him down. I got up off of him and backed off, only to be grabbed by two of his goon friends. I struggled to get free.

"Call for help! Call for your daddy to come and save you. He is camp director, right?" Jon taunted. He was just trying to get me mad. It was working. I swung my leg at him and managed to hit him in the shin.

"You-" he muttered before backhanding me in the face. I felt my lip open and blood start to trickle into my mouth.

"Look at you. Pathetic. Not even your dad would come help you."

"Shut it!" I muttered. Something was happening though. I felt sort of disconnected from the rest of the world. Everything was going in slow motion. Or starting to slow down.

"What are you gonna do huh?" he asked as he pushed me again, "Useless waste of divine blood. Your mother was probably ready to give you up. Bet she jumped at the chance to get you out when she found out who your dad was."

"Shut up!" I yelled. It was then that things just stopped. I don't know what happen, but it was like something snapped. I blacked out for a moment, just a second I think. I don't know what happened in that small amount of time, but when I came to the two jerks that were holding me had let me go and they were surrounding Jon, who was rocking on the ground screaming like a banshee or something.

"NO! STOP! DON'T HURT ME!" he yelled as he rocked and tried to cover himself. He wasn't afraid of me or anything that me and the rest of the people could see. And there was a large group now. At least twenty other campers were around.

"Jon! Jon! What'd that crazy girl do to you!" his best friend Mark asked as he tried to snap his friend out of it. That didn't work though.

"What'd you do to him?" another one of the Ares cabin yelled. I froze. Did I do that? I had to have. But at the same time I couldn't have done that. It just didn't make sense. A few more of the Ares Cabin were yelling at me. I freaked out. I didn't know what to do.

So I just ran. And ran.


	9. What I wasn't expecting

What had I just done? I still wasn't sure and I swear it had to have been like an hour ago. Or something. Maybe it just seemed like a long time because I was so scared. I figured they'd find me in my cabin so I didn't go there. I had just started running. I ran until I got to the strawberry fields. I curled up near the base of one of the wild plants and it provided a bit of cover. Gods, what had I done? My breathing was still erratic.

Yeah. I was scared. And sorry. I hadn't meant to do whatever I did to Jon. It sounded really painful. I hadn't meant to hurt him like that. I was also scared that I was going to get thrown out. I was finally starting to like camp. I really was. Hector, Wes, and Emily were super nice and I finally had friends. Mom would be so angry at me if I got thrown out of another thing.

As those thoughts were running through my head I heard the distinct sound of hooves. Crap. Chiron. Here he was to throw me out of camp. I just knew it.

"Chelsea, are you going to come out of there?" he asked. I cringed as I crawled out. The moist soil was all over me. It mixed with the blood that was on my shirt and face.

"Chiron-"

"Chelsea, it's-"

"I'm really, really, really, really, sorry. I don't know what I did to Jon. It just happened, I swear-"

"Chelsea-"

"Please don't throw me out-"

"Chelsea!" The tone of his voice wasn't loud and horrible like he was angry. No, it was more because he just needed to get my attention I think. I figured the anger was just coming soon enough. I froze and looked down at my feet, partially expecting to get hit. Greg sure as heck would use the belt in this situation. Finally I raised my eyes to look at him. His brows rose for a moment as he looked me in the eye, as if he was seeing something he hadn't expected, but I ignored it. I was probably just imagining it. "Chelsea, calm down. In my thousands of years I've seen it all. Tell me, do you know what Dionysus's spheres of influence are?"

"Wine," I started. That was the easy one. I racked my brain. I knew there were some other things. "And…theater?" Chiron nodded. "And…and…"

"Madness," he finished for me. I just groaned. So my dad was the god of crazy? Typical. No wonder some of the kids thought I was a huge freak. My dad was the god of crazy. Of course I was a huge freak. I wanted to just crawl back under the plants and hide. I figured my dad would kill me anyway. That's what was going to happen. I knew him for a couple days and he was going to send me back home. Back to Alexandria. I finally found a place where I thought I might fit in, but apparently that wasn't going to last.

"Is my dad gonna fix him?" I asked. I did feel bad, even if it was his fault and he started that fault. "I'll start packing my stuff."

"Packing? My child, you are not going anywhere," Chiron assured me. I stared at him. Did he really mean that? It wasn't lost on me that he had ignored the first question.

"Will Jon get better?"

He stared at me and gave me a knowing smile. "It may take time, but I believe you'll be able to control your…blessings and undo it. And I assure you, no one will bother you again," he told me.

He was right. No one bothered me. No one bothered me because no one even talked to me. Jon was left in the infirmary and the days following that were horrible. The other campers refused to do activities with me, especially the Ares kids. So, I did things alone. Chiron adjusted my schedule. I did private canoeing with the nymphs and everything else by myself too. Sometimes it was nymph, sometimes it was satyr. Sometimes Chiron.

I didn't even have Forester. He'd been sent to another school. Griph was the only friend that I had left. And he liked wandering around the woods a lot. It was rotten. Things had started to get so good for me. But now Emily wouldn't even look at me. Didn't acknowledge my existence. Neither did Wesley.

It was on the fourth day after the incident that something good finally happened. I was sitting at the beach. I didn't go in, because I didn't much like swimming, really. Especially alone.

"Hey, Chels," a voice said behind me. I jumped. Really. I jumped to my feet and turned around.

"He-he-hector," I said as I looked him over. He looked dirty, but I had never actually seen him clean. There was always something on him. Soot. Oil. Grease. Other weird things. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I missed seeing you at weapons making today. You weren't there," he said awkwardly, that slight Texas drawl was slipping into his voice. It was cute.

"You did?" I asked. "Not afraid I was going to snap and turn you insane or something."

"No," he said as he looked down at his feet.


End file.
